Criminal Law Commons^™

Fixing Bail, Samuel R. Wiseman

Scholarly Publications

A large portion of the jail population consists of criminal defendants whose guilt has yet to be established. A growing number of states have attempted to reduce jail populations in light of budget concerns, and many federal and state statutes already direct judges to detain defendants only if alternative conditions will not protect society or prevent pretrial flight. Despite these legislative directives, judges continue to jail too many defendants pretrial. Indeed, although statutes often direct judges not to impose financial conditions leading to detention, many pretrial detainees are in jail because they could not afford the bond set by a …

Criminal Inflictions Of Emotional Distress, Avlana Eisenberg

Scholarly Publications

This Article identifies and critiques a trend to criminalize the infliction of emotional harm independent of any physical injury or threat. The Article defines a new category of criminal infliction of emotional distress (“CIED”) statutes, which include laws designed to combat behaviors such as harassing, stalking, and bullying. In contrast to tort liability for emotional harm, which is cabined by statutes and the common law, CIED statutes allow states to regulate and punish the infliction of emotional harm in an increasingly expansive way.

In assessing harm and devising punishment, the law has always taken nonphysical harm seriously, but traditionally it …

Waiving Innocence, Samuel R. Wiseman

Scholarly Publications

No abstract provided.

Erie And Federal Criminal Courts, Wayne A. Logan

Scholarly Publications

Today, low-level state and local criminal laws figure critically in federal prosecutions, serving as the initial bases for police seizures that yield evidence leading to more serious federal charges (usually involving drugs or firearms). While police resort to such laws as pretexts to stop and arrest individuals has been frequently addressed, this article provides the first analysis of how federal courts actually interpret and apply the laws. In doing so, the article reveals a surprising reality, long dismissed as a doctrinal impossibility: federal judicial use of the analytic framework of Erie v. Tompkins to resolve criminal cases.

As the article …

Contingent Constitutionalism: State And Local Criminal Laws And The Applicability Of Federal Constitutional Rights, Wayne A. Logan

Scholarly Publications

Americans have long been bound by a shared sense of constitutional commonality, and the Supreme Court has repeatedly condemned the notion that federal constitutional rights should be allowed to depend on distinct state and local legal norms. In reality, however, federal rights do indeed vary, and they do so as a result of their contingent relationship to the diversity of state and local laws on which they rely. Focusing on criminal procedure rights in particular, this Article examines the benefits and detriments of constitutional contingency, and casts in new light many enduring understandings of American constitutionalism, including the effects of …

State Criminal Justice And The Challenge Of Ex-Offender Mobility, Wayne A. Logan

Scholarly Publications

No abstract provided.

Crime, Criminals And Competitive Crime Control, Wayne A. Logan

Scholarly Publications

Given the negative consequences of crime, it should come as no surprise that states will endeavor to make their dominions less hospitable to potential criminal actors. This predisposition, when played out on a national stage, would appear ripe for a dynamic in which states will seek to "out-tough" one another, leading to a spiral of detrimental competitiveness.

Creating A "Hydra In Government": Federal Recourse To State Law In Crime Fighting, Wayne A. Logan

Scholarly Publications

Traditionally, U.S.-state criminal justice relations have been conceived in two-dimensional terms, with concern primarily dedicated to U.S. usurpations of state authority. As this Article makes clear, however, U.S.-state relations are in significant measure also multi-dimensional and synergistic: rather than being solely engaged in a zero-sum power competition with states, the U.S. in actuality often defers to state laws and outcomes, despite the highly variegated normative positions they embody. As a consequence of this deference, the U.S. at once increases the scope, content and effect of its own criminal justice enterprise, and elevates (not reduces) the sovereign authority of states. The …

The Shadow Criminal Law Of Municipal Governance, Wayne A. Logan

Scholarly Publications

Although it often escapes attention, municipal governments possess significant authority to enact criminal laws consistent with their expansive home rule and police powers. In this article, Professor Logan explores the numerous ways in which this authority manifests, and reflects upon, several of the main concerns presented by the "shadow criminal law" thereby created. These concerns include the negative practical consequences for individuals and entire communities associated with the proliferation of criminal laws, in which municipalities play a significant part; the specter that such governments will indulge punitive or parochial tendencies; and the pitfalls associated with intra-state diversification of the criminal …

Child Sexual Abuse Prosecutions: Admitting Out-Of-Court Statements Of Child Victims And Witnesses In Louisana, Charles W. Ehrhardt, Ryon M. Mccabe

Scholarly Publications

No abstract provided.

Florida's Legislative Response To Furman: An Exercise In Futility?, Charles W. Ehrhardt, Harold Levinson

Scholarly Publications

No abstract provided.

The Future Of Capital Punishment In Florida: Analysis And Recommendations, Charles W. Ehrhardt, Phillip A. Hubbart, Harold Levinson, William Mckinley Smiley, Thomas A. Wills

Scholarly Publications

The Supreme Court's decision abolishing the death penalty, at least as it existed in most jurisdictions, hardly represents the final resolution of the controversy over capital punishment. Given substantial public sentiment which apparently favors capital punishment in some form-voiced, for example, in the results of the recent referendum in California-various legislative bodies will face the question of whether capital punishment can and should be legislatively reinstated. In December 1972 the State of Florida became the first jurisdiction to pass judgment on this question. The legislature enacted a bill allowing imposition of the death penalty in certain circumstances. The two articles …

Comments On Recent Cases, Charles W. Ehrhardt

Scholarly Publications

No abstract provided.